The FastDay Forum

Hi from a newbie
I've tried searching through to see if this question has already been posted but couldn't find it so here goes.

Don't many vegetables and salad vegetables have negligible or no calories at all? In which case, can I eat a wacking great bowlful on my fast days?

I love salads so have my fingers crossed...

Hi Empyrean and welcome. I certainly hope so coz that's exactly what I've been doing for last 10weeks I don't bother to count veg/salad just guesstimate. But its working well for me and love this woe Sue

Definitely! You would have to eat 7 pounds of lettuce to get anywhere near 500 kcal.

Personally I find 1 pound of vegetables filling enough

You are both absolutely right! Most salad stuff and non-starchy vegetables are very low in calories and can be eaten freely although some people still prefer to count them and that is their choice. Don't forget that it is the salad dressings which may be the high calorie culprits, so they should be taken into consideration eg one tablespoon of olive oil is 135 calories, Hellmann's real mayonnaise is 106c per 15g (and that amount doesn't go far at all!) Hope this helps. Happy munching!

7lbs of lettuce?! Eeeep!
One of my fave low cal meals is a spicy stir fry. Chillies, onions, ginger and masses of veg (or a big ready mixed bag if I'm rushing) with Asian condiments. Delish.

If you love salad dressings, genuine mustard is great. It only contains vinegar and mustard seeds, so it's very low calorie.

Some people also love using a fermented milk such as skyr, kvark, low fat yoghurt or low fat sour cream mixed with herbs, which will give you some great proteins without using up too many calories.

But for me, the best is fresh lemon juice, maybe whisked with some good olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper to emulsify it and add taste, when I want some good fats. I also like a mashed up avocado or guacamole for that.

If you want fat, I suppose raw egg yolk is also a classic dressing? But I haven't dared try it myself.

7lbs of lettuce?! Eeeep!
One of my fave low cal meals is a spicy stir fry. Chillies, onions, ginger and masses of veg (or a big ready mixed bag if I'm rushing) with Asian condiments. Delish.

Haha

That sounds delicious. I love all stir frys with onions and chilies! Haven't tried it with Asian condiments, because I'm sadly horrible at using spices, but whenever someone else makes Asian food for me I love it.

Thanks everybody, that's fab - salad tonight. Just one other thing, I'm assuming this "virtually unlimited" salad applies to non-starchy but would include cucumber,peppers, tomatoes, onions, celery and of course, lettuce.
If I'm wrong could you let me know before 7 tonight please!!!

On my fast days I always have a huge plate of salad for evening meal - cucumber, lettuce, raw carrot, peppers etc - It's only my 4th fast but if I couldn't have this as my main meal I don't think I could cope!!

Hiya

I used to count and weigh all my salad & veg on a fast day but now just estimate it as a rough 50 cals for a huge bowlful. I figure sometimes its more, sometimes less. Mostly I chop up 1/2-1 carrot, a chunk of cucumber, a pepper, maybe some cherry toms and pile it on top of a heap of leaves with some slivers of red onion on top. I'm sure it's not going to be wildly calorific even if it's outside my estimate and I'm sure my fasting efforts are not going to be sabotaged by having too much salad!

Enjoy the salad - I'm having a non-fast day salad tonight with butternut squash & red oniond roasted with rosemary & garlic, with feta cheese, chickpeas and swiss chard, dressed with a chilli and olive oil dressing. It's in the oven now and I'm drooling already at the smells!

Greenmonster I am on my way round - sounds delicious!

I'm not counting calories in salads, as long as I keep it veggie based. Tonight's salad will be lots of lettuce, carrot, tomato, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and then 10 calorie salsa as the dressing. And then a side of asparagus with salt and pepper. I'm just assigning it a calorie number of 50, and figure it's going to be pretty close to that

Yep mine has everything in it as well celery peppers all helps to crunch your way through, I do use low fat salad cream (not much on f/days) also use + love balsamic glaze (tesco finest) wonderfully & one of the best flavors on my Large plate is beetroot wonderful Sue

I have added up salad ingredients before now and have got close to 80kcals. The carrots and beetroot (root veg = starchy veg = carbs = calories)do bump it up.
The salad dressing is the culprit easily 100kcals for 2 tablespoons.

My favourite low calorie dressings are
balsamic vinegar
the vinegar from the pickled onions
Lime juice
Lemon juice
2 Tablespoons of low fat yogurt, a teaspoon of strong blue cheese and lemon juice.

Stumbled across this just as I was wondering about veg calories (ask & you shall be answered! ). Only I'm not eating my veg & salad, I'm drinking them. Inspired by that programme Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, I decided I needed to substantially up my veg intake. But:

- I don't own a juicer and don't want to invest in one just now but I do have a blender;
- I much prefer to have whole fruit & veg and get the fibre in;
- I'm allergic to a lot of fruit (& nuts) - the bane of my life. So apples, pears and many other fruits were out.

So I decided to try green smoothies. The process of trial and error is continuing (I've only done this for 2 fast days so far) but this is what I know now:

- Following guidance on the internet, I worked out the best way is to put liquid in first, then chunks and then leaves for the most effective blending;
- My blenders' not that powerful (500 watts) so I ended up with small chunks of carrots in the smoothies. I don't mind that much, but am going to experiment with a stick (hand) blender to see if I can get a better consistency;
- I can't drink the smoothies without seasoning, which means I'm taking in a lot of salt which is not good. Am experimenting with stock and Bovril (boiled or made up with hot water, then cooled & added to the blender). Not particularly trying to detox so that's ok.

Yesterday's fast worked quite well. I had only veg smoothies, 3 times, probably a total of close to 4 pints in all. Hardly felt hungry and didn't miss real food. And here's the astonishing thing - I wasn't hungry this morning. Had to force myself to eat breakfast cos I was going out and didn't want to get hungry later and eat rubbish. But I could easily have done without.

All this rambling is leading up to the question I had which was, did I go over the 500 calorie mark yesterday? Having read this thread, I think probably not. I'm loathe to count calories cos that'll make the blending process much longer and more onerous. The veg I had included carrots, celery, spring onions, tomatoes, cucumber, spinach, red & yellow peppers. None of them very starchy except for the carrots, I reckon. No fat or sweet stuff at all.

Any thoughts on this, anybody?